StrongVPN traces its roots back to 1994 when a small company selling PC computers was founded in South Lake Tahoe, California. Soon after, this company shifted its scope to providing dial-up Internet services. In 2005, StrongVPN was born, providing privacy services to users around the world and earning a place on our guide to the best VPN in 2019.
Plans and pricing
While most VPN providers have several subscription plans on offer (six-month, two-year, etc) with savings for longer commitment periods, StrongVPN has only two pricing options available: one-month and one-year. The monthly option costs $10 (about £9), while the annual subscription is more affordable, with a price of $5.83 (about £5) per month. Accepted payment methods include credit cards, PayPal and Alipay.
While there's no free trial per se, the company states its 30-day money-back guarantee is unconditional, which means you have quite a long period to check if the service is the right fit for you. If not, make sure you cancel the subscription and request a refund during this period.
Features
StrongVPN offers its users access to 650+ servers scattered across 46 cities, as well as access to 59,500 VPN IP addresses.
One of the standard VPN features provided by this platform is a kill switch – a valuable mechanism that protects your privacy in case of an unexpected VPN connection interruption. If this happens, the kill switch immediately disconnects your device from the internet.
Another common feature employed by StrongVPN is the automatic selection of the best available location, giving you highest speed possible while using the service.
Although the provider doesn’t have any special or proprietary features like its counterparts, it supports an unusually high number of simultaneous connections – 12. Moreover, it can be set up on a router, increasing this number to virtually infinite. The only catch is that the router itself has to be VPN-optimized, but you can consult the StrongVPN website or customer support for a recommendation.
Privacy and logging
StrongVPN doesn’t stand out much from the crowd in terms of security and privacy either. The list of connection protocols lists all the familiar faces – OpenVPN, L2TP, SSTP, IKEv2, and IPSec – while strong encryption is provided courtesy of AES-256-CBC algorithm. The CBC mode of operation is used due to its performance advantages.
Additionally, the company uses its own secure DNS system called StrongDNS, which is also available as a separate service.
The usual no-logs policy is in force – StrongVPN doesn’t track or store any of your activity logs during its use. The company clearly lists the information it does collect - email addresses and payment information, for the purposes of creating your account. This information isn’t passed on to any third parties.
However, more details about the no-logs policy would be welcome, especially since the physical location of the provider (the United States) doesn’t exactly scream 'privacy protection'.
Specifically, in addition to having a bad reputation concerning the privacy of its citizens and outsiders, the US is one of the members of the so-called Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes alliances, whose members track information about individuals and businesses and share it with each other.
Performance
StrongVPN doesn’t disappoint in terms of performance. Download speeds and connection times are fast, while the connection itself is stable. Expectedly, the performance is greatest when using the US servers, dropping a little for servers in more remote locations. This is a common occurrence in this business, and doesn’t affect the overall performance greatly.
Netflix
StrongVPN is an excellent choice if you need a VPN for accessing popular streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, HBO, Popcorn Time and Crunchyroll. It not only provides unhindered access to these geographically restricted services, but it does so at high speeds and unlimited bandwidth.
Torrents
If you decide to sign up with StrongVPN, you’ll also have unlimited, fast, and safe access to sharing large files via torrenting clients like BitTorrent. The provider makes this clear on its website.
Client setup
In terms of platforms, StrongVPN supports a vast range of options. Clients are available for download if you’re using Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Fire OS, while other devices can be manually equipped with a VPN with some help from the installation guides on the website or the customer support agents. These other platforms include Linux, Amazon Kindle, Nokia Symbian, routers, and many more.
The installation of the clients for major platforms is as simple as they come, and even if you do get stuck anywhere, the website and support agents are there for you.
Support
As mentioned above, support is available on multiple fronts. You can try browsing the website’s support section or typing in the term in the search box there and check the results. If this doesn’t address your issue, then it’s time to give a chance to one of StrongVPN’s helpful customer support agents at your disposal at any time of night or day, regardless of your time zone. They can be contacted via live chat on the website, as well as though email support.
On top of that, this provider is one of the rare ones that have phone customer support, available during work hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Central Time).
