Windscribe Review 2021 - Keep This in Mind Before Buying

Windscribe claims to offer top-notch encryption and access to tons of streaming platforms at a super low price, but are these claims accurate? With so many VPNs on the market offering similar perks but at a higher cost, these features seemed too good to be true. I had to find out for myself how good it really is.

To see out how it performs, I thoroughly tested every aspect of the Windscribe app, including its security, speeds, and unblocking capabilities. I also looked into how well it works for torrenting and ran it through several leak tests. In addition, I did extensive tests on the free version and found out whether its 10 GB data limit is enough for the average user.

Overall, I was impressed with many of Windscribe’s features, but it falls short in several key areas like speeds and gaming. The results actually surprised me, so join me on this vpnMentor review of Windscribe VPN.

Short on Time? Here Are My Key Findings

Windscribe Features — Updated in October 2021

Streaming — Works with Every Major Streaming Platform

I was able to unblock Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, and BBC iPlayer for buffer-free streaming. It worked so well because Windscribe uses a proprietary spoofing technology (called Location Warp) that helps mask your IP, so you can access geo-restricted streaming platforms.

On top of that, I was impressed that I could unblock all of these platforms with the free version of Windscribe, which uses Location Warp too. Sign up with an email address, and you can get 10 GBs of data per month on your free account, and a tweet about Windscribe will get you 15 GBs. That will let you stream in HD for a little over 7 hours.

I tested Windscribe’s streaming capabilities on my laptop, tablet, and Android Phone. Then, I tried it out on my Firestick TV using the app I downloaded on the Amazon Store, and it worked great.

One minor issue is that compared to my base connection, videos took a little longer to load with Windscribe. However, the streaming quality never dropped below HD. I didn’t experience any buffering, whether I was using the free app or the paid version.

Unblocked Netflix

I was able to unblock US Netflix along with libraries from the UK, Canada, Japan, and Australia. The free app unblocked all these regions too, except for Japan which is only on the premium service. In my first test, I connected to the Atlanta server and opened Netflix. The platform loaded up right away. I selected an episode of Supernatural, and it started playing instantly. The entire episode played back in HD without any buffering.

Every show I watched on Netflix loaded instantly

I also got similar results using the Dallas server. The only difference was that the video took 2 seconds longer to load, which is still an impressive result.

Unblocked Hulu

I was able to access Hulu using the Los Angeles server. This let me watch The Wonder Years, one of my favorite shows, in sharp HD.

Every video I loaded played without buffering

The show loaded immediately and played back without any dips in quality. Jumping between episodes and different shows didn’t slow down the viewing experience.

Unblocked Disney+

All 5 US servers I used managed to unblock Disney+. While connected to Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, and New York servers, I could easily access all my favorite movies.

I finished watching an entire movie in Full HD without buffering

It took 2 seconds to load the page and 5 seconds to load each video. However, the movies never stopped to buffer once they started playing.

Unblocked Amazon Prime Video

I unblocked Amazon Prime Video libraries with servers in the US, Germany, and the UK. At first, the videos didn’t load. However, I simply reloaded the page, and I was able to instantly start playing movies and shows.

After I connected to the US server, I had access to the full library

The quality never dropped below HD, and it didn’t stop to buffer.

Unblocked HBO Max

It was easy to unblock HBO Max. I usually have issues unblocking this platform, but it worked immediately using Windscribe’s Atlanta server.

All the videos I opened, loaded in high quality

It took the video 3 seconds to load, but then it played without buffering. It worked just as well on the Denver server but videos took a bit longer to start up (around 5 seconds on average).

Unblocked BBC iPlayer

It was easy to access BBC iPlayer with Windscribe. I was impressed that all the videos loaded immediately with the highest quality already selected.

Every video I opened had the highest quality already selected

The quality of the picture remained consistent even though I was downloading a few large files in the background.

Also Unblocked: HBO Go, iTV, All 4, YouTube, Spotify, and DAZN

The UK server even managed to unblock All 4. Most VPNs focus their attention on US streaming platforms as these are more popular. This makes it hard to find a service that works with UK platforms, but Windscribe’s UK server worked great.

I was able to enjoy all my favorite shows in the best quality

Windscribe managed to unblock every platform I tried it with. This is an impressive showing for a relatively small VPN provider.

Speeds — Fast on Nearby Locations but Slow on Long Distance Ones

Windscribe has great speeds on local servers, but it slows down at long distances. Usually, the farther you are from a server, the slower your speeds will be since the data you are requesting takes longer to reach you. However, the drops in speed are much larger than normal with Windscribe. These tests were performed with the premium app; on the free version, I didn’t notice any difference in speeds. Every test was recorded on a Windows 10 laptop using the IKEv2 protocol.

Short-distance server speeds are impressive. First, I tested its Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Moldova locations. Best Location is a convenient feature that connects the VPN to the server closest to you, which was Poland in my case. These servers are all less than 300km away from my location and each one gave me similar results. All together, I got an average speed of 62.10 Mbps, which is more than enough to stream 4K content.

I could perform any online activity comfortably with these speeds

However, long-distance download rates dropped by 80%, and upload rates fell by 72%. I used its Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore locations for my long-distance speed tests. All of these locations are more than 2500 km away from me. On average, I recorded speeds of 12.46 Mbps. This isn’t fast, but it’s suitable for streaming since you only need 5 Mbps to stream in HD.

The average speed drop is 80% compared to nearby servers

You won’t get faster speeds using different protocols. I wondered whether other security protocols might improve my speeds, so I tested them using the Singapore location.

IKEv2 is the fastest and most reliable protocol

Every other protocol I tested was slower than IKeV2. Also, WSTunnel (another security protocol) never worked and repeatedly prompted an error screen.

Are Windscribe’s Speeds Fast Enough for Gaming? Yes, but Not for Cloud Gaming

Windscribe is suitable for PC and consoles, but it’s not a good option for cloud gaming (playing games that you stream rather than download). To start my test, I set up Windscribe on my router and booted up Super Smash Bros Ultimate on a Nintendo Switch. It took me 2 minutes to find a match, and I didn’t notice any lag. During my gaming session, the ping remained low (the higher the ping, the longer your button presses will take to register by the game), and I was never disconnected.

However, when I tried it with GeForce Now using a US server, it took about 4 minutes to load. I tried again using a UK one, and it worked. However, the experience wasn’t good as there was a lot of pixelation, lag, and I was even disconnected a few times.

I also noticed that input latency was high

I also tried Google Stadia and xCloud, but Windscribe failed to unblock them. You won’t be able to stream games using Windscribe. To experience cloud-gaming safely, you’ll need to use one of the top VPNs for gamers.

Server Network — Huge Selection of Reliable Locations

Windscribe’s vast server network will help you access more streaming sites. It offers 170 servers in 60 countries with the premium app. This is enough to unblock a wide range of popular shows from various countries. You can also access several countries many VPNs neglect, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Turkey. It does use rented servers, which isn’t uncommon, but VPNs that own their servers offer the best security because they don’t have to rely on third-parties.

The free service lets you use the Hong Kong location too, along with servers in the US and 8 European countries. Overall, Western Europe and North America have the most coverage.

It doesn’t use fake IP addresses, which are easily blocked by streaming platforms. Some VPNs have their entire server list located in the US and Europe but use fake WHOIS data to make it seem like you’re in other countries. Most streaming platforms can easily detect such addresses and will simply block them. Windscribe offers real IP addresses, meaning you’re much less likely to be blocked.

Navigating the server list is easy and intuitive. In the app, you can expand it to find some useful information about each location. After you’ve opened the server list, select the country you wish to connect to, and hit the “+” icon. This will reveal a list of cities (all accompanied with funny names) you can connect to, along with the option to bookmark a location. Plus, you can always check the Windscribe for updates that will tell you if any servers are down.

Click the plus symbol to see each city in your selected country

With the expanded list, you’ll also be able to see the latency rate (in ms). This is useful, but I would have preferred if there was a load percentage. The load lets you know how many people are on a server, so you can find one that’s less crowded.

I didn’t like that the sorting option is hidden deep within the app. You can sort by alphabet, geography, and latency. However, you have to open the app and hit the Settings menu, then access the “General” tab to find the sort feature. I wish there were a more straightforward way to arrange the server, like in the browser extension where you simply have to click on an arrow hidden inside the server list.

But I really liked that you don’t need to disconnect from a server to connect to a new one. This might seem small, but you aren’t exposing yourself if you swap servers instead of disconnecting, and the connection process is faster this way.

You can also purchase static IP addresses, which is helpful if you need a consistent, encrypted IP to operate a website. You can choose between 10 data center IPs in 6 countries for an addition $2.00 a month. Residential IPs are offered in Chicago, Dallas, and Toronto for an added $8.00 each month. Windscribe’s website claim these can also help you access streaming sites. However, I was able to unblock every streaming platform I tried with its normal servers. So, if you need a static IP, stick with the data centers and save some money.

Security — Top-notch Features to Protect Your Data

Windscribe provides you with military-grade security that keeps you safe online. It offers AES 256-bit encryption which makes your data virtually unreadable. This is further enhanced by a SHA512 algorithm, and a 4096-bit RSA key. This turns your information into a random set of characters that only your device can read correctly. On top of that, Perfect Forward Secrecy creates a new encryption key each time you log in. So, even if a key was ever cracked, a new one would be generated immediately at the start of your next session.

Split-tunneling lets you choose which apps or websites move through the VPN tunnel. So, you can stay updated on local news while your Netflix app is streaming content from another country’s library. However, top-notch security features don’t matter if the app itself is infected with viruses, so we performed tests on both the mobile and desktop versions. Thankfully, our virus scans didn’t detect any threats, so you can feel safe downloading it to your device.

It also comes with a dedicated kill switch (called Firewall). This feature will disable the network when your VPN connection drops, so you don’t leak any data. You can enable it in the app simply by toggling the white switch near the connect button. There are three modes you can select, Automatic, Manual, and always ON.

There’s also a whitelisting feature that will automatically activate the VPN connection when you log in to an unsecured network. This is a lifesaver for someone like me, as I often forget to turn on a VPN when using public networks. I used this feature to set up my home network as “secured” and all others as “unsecured.” That way, my device is protected every time I use a public Wi-Fi network. I can also access my home network remotely while connected to Windscribe by using its Port Forwarding feature.

Other Security Features

Windscribe also offers additional security features that let you customize the app.

The R.O.B.E.R.T. feature can help you protect your network. This is a dedicated domain and IP-blocking system you can use to blacklist IPs, ads, tracking, and crypto miners, which can also help you save internet data. The system is also capable of malware blocking, phishing detection, and location spoofing. R.O.B.E.R.T. is available to both paying and free users, but the free version only offers the malware blocking.

There’s a botnet attack prevention feature — a botnet invasion is a curated attack of several computers that have access to your device through malware or a phishing website. It’ll automatically block these threats, so you won’t have to worry about network-related invasions.

Another handy feature is Secure Hotspot which you can use to make your computer work as a protected router. This could be useful, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to use it. I tried this feature on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks, restarted my device, and even tried to connect via Ethernet port, but it didn’t work.

The Double Hop tool will route your traffic through an extra server. This will make your traffic more secure and untraceable for hackers, trackers, and malware. To activate this feature, you first need to install both the desktop app and the browser extension. Then, simply connect to a server on the desktop app and connect to the same way on the browser extension.

The latency doubled, and I lost a lot of speed

Since Double Hop reroutes your traffic, I expected a drop in speeds. I wanted to see how severe the reduction is, so I connected to the Romania server and did a speed test which gave me 18.50 Mbps. I then connected the browser extension to the US and redid the speed test again, resulting in 9.65 Mbps, roughly a 52% reduction. Unless you need an extra security layer, I do not recommend using this feature since you lose so much speed.

Location Warp will make it look like you’re in a specified location. In most cases, a VPN will give you the necessary IP address so you can access geo-restricted content. However, some websites might check your physical location through the GPS module on your device or through your Wi-Fi SSID. This feature helps prevent such issues by giving the website you are visiting fake GPS coordinates.

Time Warp is another feature that’ll help you keep your device anonymous. Some sites can detect that you are using a VPN by looking at your time zone. This feature will prevent that by showing the website you’re on a matching time figure.

It also has DNS/IPv6 leak protection, which allowed it to pass all my leak tests. Many VPNs leak data through your browser (a.k.a WebRTC), so I was glad to see that Windscribe kept my data hidden from the websites I visited.

I’m actually 8787 km away from the US

There are also multiple protocols to choose from, so you can customize your security level. Windscribe supports every major security protocol, including IKEv2, OpenVPN (TCP and UDP), WireGuard, WSTunnel, and its own Stealth option. Overall, I recommend using WireGuard as it offers the best balance of speed and security.

Is it safe to combine Windscribe with Tor? Yes!

You can use Windscribe over Tor for maximum security. Tor, also known as The Onion Router, is a special browser that was designed to offer complete anonymity. It is more secure than a traditional browser which makes it useful in highly restrictive countries.

You can combine Windscribe with Tor to add another layer of security and mask your activities from the ISP. And if there’s something wrong with Tor, Windscribe’s IP will be exposed, not yours. However, Tor is notorious for cutting speed so I decided to test this.

Despite reduced speeds, I was still able to load pages relatively fast

Even though the speed reduction is significant, you can still combine Windscribe with Tor, and have a responsive web-browsing experience.

Privacy — A Strict No-Logs Policy to Protect Your Data

Windscribe does not reveal any information about you. It follows a strict no-logs policy and does not store any of its customer’s data. Your IP address, the sites you’ve visited, and timestamps for your VPN sessions won’t be collected either. You can be sure that your information will stay safe.

Windscribe offers transparency reports which you can read to verify its policy. There’s a graph you can use on its website to track how many times the company’s received DMCA or law enforcement data requests. It also tells you whether Windscribe fulfilled any of these requests. After reading through them, I could not find any records of Windscribe complying with the requests. This proves the company doesn’t store any of your data.

However, you should be aware that the company is based in Canada, a member of the 14 Eyes Alliance. This is an agreement between Canada, the US, the UK, New Zealand, and 10 other countries to share data on their citizens. In other words, Windscribe can be summoned to turn over any records they have on an individual to the government.

I found this info browsing Windscribe’s FAQ section

Fortunately, Windscribe does not require you to give out any identifying information. The only things you need to create an account are a username and a password.

Windscribe states that all of this data is necessary to enforce the free tier’s limitations.

You don’t have to give Windscribe an email or any other type of contact information if you don’t want to. To maximize your anonymity, Windscribe even allows you to pay with Bitcoin. This is a fantastic option as you don’t have to give away your credit card or PayPal info during the checkout process. If you sign up with this method, it won’t have anything to share even if government agencies request your data.

Torrenting — Download Large Files Fast and Safely

Windscribe speeds are fast enough for large torrents. It allows you to torrent on most servers, excluding India, Lithuania, Russia, and South Africa. There are no data caps and download speeds are quick. I did some light torrenting and downloaded Charlie Chaplin Mabel’s Strange Predicament (160MB) in less than 2 minutes using its UK server.

During my download, the speed reached a maximum of 4.6Mb/s

Windscribe also works with popular torrent clients such as uTorrent, Deluge, qBittorrent, and VUZE. I tested all of them and didn’t notice any differences in speeds.

Does Windscribe Work in China? Yes

Windscribe can bypass the Great Firewall of China. This is a strict system of censorship that blocks internet users in China from accessing popular websites and apps such as Google, Instagram, YouTube, Netflix, Wikipedia, and many more.

Windscribe uses a Stealth connection protocol that is designed to work in restrictive environments like China. The protocol masks your OpenVPN traffic by hiding it inside a secure tunnel (called TLS) that makes it look like regular traffic. Do keep in mind that non-government-approved VPNs are illegal in China. I suggest that you read up on your local laws to avoid getting penalized.

Simultaneous Device Connections — Use on as Many Devices as You Want

For both the free and paid versions, you can connect an unlimited number of simultaneous devices. I connected my laptop, 2 gaming consoles, 2 smartphones, and my Firestick TV to the same location and started streaming on all of them. Speeds remained the same, and each time I added a new device, I was still able to stream without buffering. You’ll have zero problems using Windscribe on all your favorite devices.

Device Compatibility — Works on All Popular Operating Systems

Windscribe apps can be installed on a wide variety of devices. You can install it on Windows, Mac, and even Linux. It also has browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. But keep in mind that the extension does not give you full protection. It only serves as a proxy that doesn’t have the same security features as a VPN. You should always use it in conjunction with a VPN for maximum security.

Windscribe can also be installed on routers which can help you easily protect all your devices and encrypt traffic on devices without native apps, like gaming consoles. It offers router installation guides on its website. There are detailed tutorials for DDWRT, Tomato, and Asus routers. If you don’t have the time to deal with configurations, it even sells pre-configured routers.

The iOS and Android apps are almost identical to the desktop versions. Both apps have the same user interface and share a similar menu structure. In terms of security features, there’s support for IKEv2, WireGuard, Stealth, and OpenVPN (UDP and TCP), network whitelisting, shortcuts for voice assistants, and split tunneling. There’s even a design feature that lets you pick a custom color scheme for the entire app. The only difference is that the mobile apps don’t have access to the WSTunnel protocol and Proxy Settings. If you want to live stream videos on your TV, Windscribe can be installed on Amazon Fire TV, NVidia Shield, and Kodi.