Psiphon VPN Review: Is it Really Worth Using?

We’ll cut to the chase immediately. Although Psiphon VPN can unblock highly censored and geo-restricted content, it has several glaring privacy issues, including unnecessary data logging. Psiphon has a “VPN mode,” but it doesn’t have strong privacy features, which is something that the most secure VPNs pride themselves on.

There’s no kill switch, and the provider uses outdated protocols and has a history of leaking DNS data. To top it all off, it’s significantly slower than most other VPNs on the market, including several of the more popular free offerings, and the ad-free version costs more than twice what you’ll pay for the best VPNs.

Read on to find out more about Psiphon, why we won’t be recommending it to you, and which VPNs you should probably be looking at instead. Surfshark, NordVPN, and PureVPN are all reliable options that will actually hide your IP address.

In This Guide:

• Psiphon VPN Summary
• Psiphon Review: Features, Speed, Privacy
• Psiphon VPN Pricing
• Is Psiphon VPN Safe?
• Psiphon VPN Alternatives
• Verdict: Should I use Psiphon?
• FAQs

Psiphon VPN Summary

In our many years of testing VPN products at Tech. co, we can safely say Psiphon isn’t one of the best we’ve used.

Despite its flaws, however, Psiphon has a surprisingly rich history of being used by citizens of oppressive regimes since its creation in 2006. Today, Psiphon offers two different services inside its app, which is available for free:

• Psiphon proxy: this service helps users spoof their location, but the traffic that passes through the servers won’t be encrypted at any stage.
• Psiphon VPN: This basic VPN service uses AES-256-bit encryption and claims to protect user traffic, but isn’t very good for privacy at all.

When using Psiphon’s proxy or VPN servers, there are no guarantees that your digital privacy will be protected. 

The open-source VPN offers a few advanced features like split tunneling but doesn’t offer VPN basics like a kill switch. Psiphon does have over 1000 servers at 20+ locations, but it doesn’t consistently unblock any of the major streaming services most VPN users want access to.

You won’t have to spend much at all to get a far better VPN experience than Psiphon. The industry has moved on a lot since 2006, and now, Psiphon is coming up against the likes of Surfshark, which now offers a no-logs VPN, antivirus, and data leak alert system in one package for just $3.98 per month.

Psiphon VPN: In-Depth Review

Psiphon is a slow software tool that logs more data than it needs to, with far fewer features than the likes of Surfshark, Private Internet Access, and PureVPN.

Psiphon features

Psiphon isn’t featureless, but it’s not got much to shout about. There is a split tunneling feature of sorts, which enables services based in the same country to connect through a normal internet connection. The logic is that these won’t be censored anyway (for example, accessing US Netflix within the US), and you can enjoy normal speeds when using those services – which is useful considering Psiphon’s speeds.

Now for what’s missing. There is no kill switch, no multi-hop or double VPN function, no protection against malicious websites or ads, and there seems to be no publicly available information regarding the state of its server architecture.

Psiphon servers

What we do know is that Psiphon has more than 1,000 servers in 20 locations across the globe. However, unlike most other VPNs and proxy servers, Psiphon won’t let you choose which server to connect to when you use its VPN mode.

This is a shame, considering that letting users choose which servers they connect to is important. If you’d like to connect to a specific location and it’s too slow, you don’t have as much power to change that with Psiphon as you do with VPNs like NordVPN.

If you want server-level choice, you’ll have to head over to one of the 27 proxy server locations made available by Psiphon – but of course, you’ll have even fewer privacy protections on this version.

The Psiphon VPN interface includes a dropdown list of server locations. Image source: Psiphon VPN

Psiphon speeds

Psiphon was pretty sluggish when we lasted took it out for a spin.

Not only will you not enjoy the same internet speeds you’d get without a VPN, but you’ll also be a lot worse off with Psiphon than you would be with a faster service like Surfshark.

We charted speed drop-offs of more than 50% with Psiphon activated on our devices. This is significantly slower on both long-distance and local VPN links than many paid-for and free VPN apps.

By way of comparison, Surfshark only saw a 4.5% reduction in speed on our most recent VPN speed tests, while ExpressVPN experienced a 17.8% drop off:

Psiphon privacy

To put it bluntly, neither Psiphon’s proxy nor VPN mode will enhance your privacy while you use the internet.

For one, they both lack the basic features to do so. Admittedly though, the proxy server is a proxy server and serves its purpose as a content unblocker, rather than a cybersecurity tool.

Psiphon’s free version is full of ads, and when you download the app from the Apple or Google Play store, you have to give permission to a collection of entities to track your activity.

The VPN version is not much better. Psiphon has no kill switch, which VPNs like NordVPN and ExpressVPN include to ensure your internet connection drops if your VPN connection does, meaning you’ll never spend any time online without being protected. This is a basic feature that almost all good VPNs provide, so the fact Psiphon doesn’t provide it doesn’t bode well for the provider.

Although it uses AES-256 encryption, it only secures traffic using the L2TP/IPSec protocol, which is widely considered to be outdated. Furthermore, the usual (and more secure) protocols housed by VPNs – most notably OpenVPN – are not available when you use Psiphon.

Psiphon’s privacy policy

Psiphon’s privacy policy is concerningly vague. For instance, it says in the section pictured below that Psiphon keeps user activity data for 90 days, and although it says that IP address information is “immediately discarded”, the fact it’s recorded at all is bad enough:

A highlighted sample of the Psiphon VPN privacy policy, as of April 2024. Image source: Psiphon

You should be wary of using any VPN that doesn’t clearly state that they don’t log IP addresses or browsing data in their privacy policy. VPNs that actually keep zero logs will be more than happy to state it – in fact, it’ll be one of their better selling points. They won’t try and confuse you – quite the opposite, in fact.

Reading through Psiphon’s privacy policy, on the other hand, it’s clear that this provider is attempting to be deliberately vague. For example, in the picture above, it says that Psiphon stores data for “a reasonable amount of time”, which doesn’t give much information to users or prospective customers.

Psiphon VPN Pricing

Psiphon can be downloaded and used for free. There’s an ad-free paid version, which costs $2.99 per week, but you can also purchase it for $6 per month on an annual subscription, or $9.99 if you’d like to pay month-by-month.

Remember though, that with Psiphon’s VPN mode, all you can do is “connect” – Psiphon itself chooses the specific server that you’ll be connecting to. So it’s a lot cheaper, but also a lot less functional, than other mainstream VPN services.

Is Psiphon VPN Safe?

Unfortunately, neither the free or the paid version of Psiphon is the safest choice if you’re after a VPN to guarantee your online privacy.

According to Psiphon’s own definition, the tool should be considered primarily to be a “censorship circumvention tool” only – it doesn’t even offer basic VPN features like a kill switch. Worse, the free version’s reliance on advertising means it will track data that most VPNs leave alone. This could potentially lead to a privacy violation.

As we explain more in our guide to VPN safety, tools like Surfshark or PureVPN will offer much better security and privacy protocols.

Psiphon VPN Alternatives

As you may have noticed by now, we have a few ideas about which VPNs may be better for your needs than Psiphon. Here’s a table of all our research team’s picks, followed by a closer look at the top three VPNs on the market.

Surfshark vs Psiphon

Surfshark’s features are a big list of what Psiphon doesn’t have: A kill switch, lots of servers, a zero-logging policy, and no data collection. Plus, Surfshark’s paid plans start at just $2.39 per month, compared to Psiphon’s $9.99-per-month price tag.

It includes additional features as well: The CleanWeb tool blocks ads, malware, and trackers while online, an auto-connect feature can save you time, and a Rotating IP tool changes your IP address regularly even while your traffic remains inside the region you selected. According to our most recent VPN research, conducted in Spring 2024, it’s the best overall VPN you can buy today.

NordVPN vs Psiphon

With 5,363 servers across 59 countries worldwide, NordVPN has all the regions you could need. It also includes a kill switch, handles up to six devices at the same time, and comes with email and live chat support.

Granted, NordVPN lagged in our speed tests, with a 40% drop in speeds, but that’s still better than Psiphon’s 50% drop-off when activated. Plus, it costs well below Psiphon, starting at $3.09 per month with three month free, for those willing to commit to two years.

PureVPN vs Psiphon

As with all our top Psiphon alternatives, PureVPN won’t log or collect user data, does not include ads, and comes with a larger server network to support your VPN needs. It can be used across five devices simultaneously and comes with a dedicated hot spot function.

Like Surfshark, PureVPN comes bundled with antivirus and adblocker functionality. Prices start at just over two dollars a month for a two-year plan, making this yet another VPN that’s cheaper than Psiphon’s $9.99 a month or $2.99 a week price point.

FAQs