e-VPN Review

e-VPN is a virtual private network that looks to draw customers in with a generous free plan and low monthly rate. It won’t come within a mile of the best VPN providers, though, as it has some of the worst speeds we’ve seen and an infuriating user experience. Even so, if you can get past the usability woes and keep your connection close to home, you’ll find a great value.

In this e-VPN review, we’ll go over everything we liked and didn’t like after spending time with the service. We’re going to discuss features, pricing, ease of use, supported devices, server locations, speed, security and customer service before giving our verdict.

We don’t think e-VPN is bad, but it could use some work. You get what you pay for, and e-VPN blasts that message in your ears around every turn. Still, if you can contend with its shortcomings, you’ll come out ahead when it comes to moolah.

Alternatives for e-VPN

Strengths & Weaknesses

Features

e-VPN is light on features, but it has the essentials. You can protect your connection with a killswitch, which is a tool that severs your connection to the remote server in the event it drops. Oddly, it’s disabled by default, but you can turn it on in the settings.

There’s also an ad blocker built in, according to e-VPN, but there isn’t a browser extension or any settings that relate to it. We didn’t notice a difference while browsing, either. That means there isn’t an ad blocker or it’s bad at doing its job. That’s not too big a deal, though, as ad blockers are readily available online (check out our best pop-up blockers).

It also claims that the blocker bypasses malicious advertisements meant to install browser hijackers or ransomware. Since it didn’t block ads, we recommend using the best antivirus software to protect against those forms of cybercrime instead. Read our what is browser hijacking and what is ransomware guides to learn more.

e-VPN allows for peer-to-peer connections and torrenting, but it won’t be making our best VPN for torrenting guide. At the time of writing, only one server supported P2P connections, despite the website claiming that two did. If you’re planning on torrenting, you should look elsewhere.

You should also read our what is torrenting and is torrenting illegal guides to make sure you know what you’re getting into.

Other than that, e-VPN is straightforward. It uses OpenVPN exclusively, but you have the option to change your transport protocol to UDP or TCP. Additionally, there’s a “stealth” option that should bypass deep packet inspection.

e-VPN Streaming Performance

Streaming performance was spotty. Ignoring e-VPN’s subpar speeds, which we’ll get to later, it’s a suitable solution to access region-locked content. It made it into Netflix and BBC iPlayer but, again, it’s too slow to make our best VPN for Netflix or best VPN for BBC iPlayer lists.

It didn’t work with Hulu or Amazon Prime Video, though, which is strange. Usually, it’s the other way around. If you’re looking to access content there, you would need to use another platform, such as Kodi. You can learn about that  in our full Kodi guide.

e-VPN Online Shield Features Overview

Pricing

e-VPN is the cheapest VPN provider we’ve seen. In addition to offering a generous free plan, the monthly and semi-annual rates are low. Add unlimited bandwidth and connections to that and the service starts to look like a great value.

Free Unlimited GB Bandwidth 1 Included Devices	FREE
Monthly Unlimited GB Bandwidth Unlimited Included Devices Bitcoin	$ 3.19/ month
Semi-annually Unlimited GB Bandwidth Unlimited Included Devices Bitcoin	1-month plan $ 2.55/ month 6-months plan $ 2.55/ month $15.30 billed every 6 month

The free plan gave us pause at first. Usually, an unlimited free plan is a sure sign of malware, as you can see in our worst free VPN guide. That said, we scanned the installer with Avast (read our Avast Pro review) and found no trace of malware.

e-VPN justifies its free service with limited speeds, though. You still get the full client, no-logging policy and ad blocker, but you can’t make P2P connections and your speed is limited to 3 megabits per second up or down. You can only connect to the Amsterdam server, too.

The free plan is good, but we think a restricted bandwidth model would be better. Read our Windscribe review to learn about a provider that has nailed that concept.

The speed limitation is interesting because it falls just under Netflix’s recommended 5 Mbps for high-definition streaming. The free plan will let you connect to websites that would otherwise be geoblocked, but be prepared for a sluggish browser experience.

It seems like an advertisement for e-VPN’s paid plan, which isn’t a bad thing. The rates are so low that it might as well be free. Its monthly rates are a fraction those at NordVPN (read our NordVPN review), which is already one of the most inexpensive providers, and only a hair-thin slice of the expensive, but impressive, ExpressVPN (read our ExpressVPN review).

The semi-annual plan provides even more value. For around the cost of a single month at VyperVPN (read our VyperVPN review), you can get six months of service. Even providers such as Private Internet Access (read our PIA review), which are cheap compared to the rest of the market, charge triple the rate for a semi-annual plan.

Plus, all e-VPN plans come with unlimited bandwidth and simultaneous connections. The price seems too good to be true, and, as we’ll see in some other sections, it kind of is. If you’re strapped for cash, it doesn’t seem like a bad option, though.

It offers a 7-day refund period, too, so there’s not risk in trying it out. 

The price will fluctuate, which is something to consider. e-VPN doesn’t adjust currency based on region, so the conversion rate will dictate how much you pay.

Ease of Use

There isn’t much going on in e-VPN’s interface, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to use. While you can find your way around, the broken navigation means you’ll be closing and reopening the application more than you should have to. e-VPN isn’t unusable, but it needs work.

Signing up and installing the application is easy, though. On the e-VPN website, you’ll enter an email address and password and choose what plan you’d like to purchase. After waiting for payment to clear, you can go to the client area and get the installers by clicking the “downloads” tab.

After a few minutes, you’ll be on your way. The main screen of the user interface shows two drop-down menus, two buttons and a small map that serves no practical purpose. The drop-downs are used to select your transport protocol and location. Once you’ve settled on your selections, you can use the “connect” button to secure your traffic.

Before getting to the bad, let’s focus on the good. We like e-VPN’s main interface. You get relevant controls that aren’t overwhelming and a simple way to connect to the servers. Servers also display a relative latency, which we found to be mostly accurate during testing. There are problems once you dig in, though.

Clicking the “settings” button, which is next to the “connect” button, will close the VPN window and open the settings window. There, you can specify custom DNS, turn on the killswitch and handle start-up settings.

You can’t get back to the main VPN from there, though, at least, we didn’t think so. We exited the settings window, went to the tray, right-clicked the e-VPN icon and selected “status” to open it back up time and time again. After reading the setup guide, we found that you can navigate back, but you do so through a hidden button that only shows up when you put your cursor over it.

Once you’re connected, you’re locked out of the interface, too. You can open it and disconnect, but you can’t change the server. You’re, again, forced to use the tray to switch locations. As much as we had to use the tray, we rarely opened the UI.

You can manage a VPN from the tray, but it makes it more difficult to do. The interface is usable, but the navigation is broken. We want to see a more streamlined experience from the UI because managing any application with tray menus can quickly become tedious and annoying.

Supported Devices

If it wasn’t for the subpar areas of e-VPN, it would be an easy inclusion in our best VPN for multiple devices guide. All plans support an unlimited number of simultaneous connections, so you can use the VPN as much as you want on as many devices as you want.

Any “unlimited” plan, whether it be for a VPN or otherwise, gives us pause, as there’s usually some limit to what you can do. e-VPN doesn’t have a clear fair use policy, though, so either there’s a limit and it’s just not in writing or the plan is truly unlimited.

Its policy simply states that you can’t share your account with another user and that a limit, on something, exists. It says “a single normal user will never reach this limit,” which is reassuring, but clarification would go a long way.

As far as platform support goes, the options are limited. e-VPN supports Windows, macOS, Android and Linux, but that’s it. We are happy that you can download the .apk file for non traditional Android builds, but the lack of support for other devices overshadows that minor upside.

The main issue is router support. While there isn’t a concern about simultaneous connections, some users prefer to use a VPN on their router for convenience and security. This is something we’d like to see e-VPN offer in the future.

Server Locations

e-VPN has less in common with CyberGhost (read our CyberGhost review) and more in common with mySteganos Online Shield (read our mySteganos Online Shield review). The server network is pitifully small, which shows the inexpensive provider’s limitations.

There are eight options in total. There are two in the Netherlands, a paid version and a free one, but outside of that, each country gets a single server. You can connect to the Netherlands, Singapore, the UK, the U.S., Romania, Sweden and Australia.

We’re confused by the locations, too. South America and Africa are blackout spots, there’s a single server in Asia and remote locations are ignored. Our European audience has a few options, but everyone else is left in the cold.

It doesn’t seem like that was always the case, though. Looking around online, we found that e-VPN provided a more comprehensive list of servers in the past. We attempted to reach support over the issue, but, as you’ll see in the upcoming “customer service” section, it didn’t answer any questions.

All we have to go on is what’s in the application and posted on e-VPN’s website. At the time of writing, there are only eight locations, two of which are in the Netherlands.

Speed

e-VPN has abysmal speeds. It makes the fastest VPN providers look all the better, eating more than half our unprotected download speed in the best location. As long as you’re staying in the same country, it’s usable, but not ideal.

Download speeds are plain awful. Compared to IPVanish (read our IPVanish review), which maintains close to unprotected speeds, e-VPN’s results are embarrassing. Our unprotected speed was so fast that the results don’t look too bad, but imagining a scenario where you’re forced to connect with slower unprotected speeds isn’t difficult.

You don’t have options, either, and that makes the speed worse. You’re restricted to staying close to home to get reasonable results, but with only eight locations, you’re left without many choices. If you have some distance to travel to make it to one, you’re giving up a lot of speed.

Because of that, it won’t make it into our best VPN for streaming guide. While our results are above the 5 Mbps recommendation from Netflix for HD streaming, with the exception of Singapore, you’ll get lower results if your unprotected speed is slower.

This is strange given e-VPN’s lesser encryption. When using AES-128 — which we’ll talk about in the next section — we expect faster speeds. However, given our results, it’s clear that 128-bit encryption is more of a necessity than anything else. 

The only redeeming quality is the latency, which stays relatively low. While it’s still a poor choice for the best VPN for gaming, the results aren’t bad.

We seldom find a provider that manages below 1 Mbps up or down for any location, but e-VPN shows that it’s possible. While you may be able to use it with an ultra-fast internet connection, that’s thinking for the best case scenario. For most users, e-VPN will struggle with basic internet tasks.

Security & Privacy

e-VPN claims it provides “military level encryption” and the details back that up. Your connection begins with a 4096-bit RSA handshake to open an encrypted tunnel that’s secured with AES-128-bit GCM. As far as “military level” goes, everything checks out. AES is one of the safest ciphers to use.

If that was gibberish to you, make sure to read our VPN security guide.

The key difference between e-VPN and ultra-secure providers, such as TorGuard (read our TorGuard review), is the key size. e-VPN is using an AES 128-bit key when the industry standard is a 256-bit key. That means the key is half the size, making it easier to brute-force attack.

That doesn’t mean it has any real world effect, though. AES has a fixed block size of 128 bits and the difference between key sizes doesn’t change the actual encryption algorithm. AES 128-bit simply means there are fewer rounds of shuffling.

As for the practical implications of using a smaller key size, there isn’t anything to note. AES 128-bit keys will provide faster times because the key has to go through fewer rounds. From a security perspective, that shouldn’t make much of a difference.

Like AirVPN (read our AirVPN review), e-VPN uses OpenVPN exclusively. You can change the transport protocol to UDP or TCP, but you can’t change the connection protocol. That said, e-VPN does include a stealth TCP setting that should help bypass strict firewalls, which is a common feature among our best VPN services for China.

It supports IPSec on Android, too, but other platforms are restricted to OpenVPN.

We ran a series of tests for DNS, WebRTC and IP leaks and e-VPN returned positive results. The use of OpenVPN ensures that none of your information is leaking.

e-VPN Privacy

A short, but thorough, privacy policy assures us that e-VPN doesn’t keep logs. There are also multiple “no logging” posts plastered on the product page. Providers such as HideMyAss (read our HideMyAss review) have spoiled that claim for everyone, though. The privacy policy may state that no logging is done, but that doesn’t mean the provider is telling the truth.

That said, we’re inclined to believe e-VPN. As a smaller provider bound by the new General Data Protection Regulation, it’s unlikely your information is being logged. The privacy policy says  e-VPN “do[es] not collect information on user activity, user IP addresses, user bandwidth usage, or user log-in/log-out times.”

Some standard information is gathered and stored, such as your email address and password, but even your billing information is kept off record. A third party source that’s contractually obligated to keep your information confidential stores it. e-VPN doesn’t touch a thing.

That means you can be anonymous with e-VPN. You only have to provide an email address and you can pay with bitcoin. Assuming your information is truly not logged, and we have no reason to believe it is, e-VPN can make you disappear online.

Customer Service

Customer service is a weak point for e-VPN. There are few self-help options and, while direct support is available, it isn’t ideal. The majority of self-help is focused on getting set up with the applications.

In the client area, there are two main tabs for support: “setup guides” and “FAQ.” The setup guides are thorough, but they don’t serve much of a purpose. They’re basically walkthroughs on how to work the installer and use the interface.

The main form of self-help is the FAQ section. It’s limited, though. e-VPN offers eight articles, many of which cover basic topics, such as upgrading your subscription and finding your username and password.

Outside of those basic topics, you’ll need to contact e-VPN directly. It offers email support, with no timeframe for when a support agent will get back to you.

We sent a test email, a e-VPN got back in a little over a day. Our question was simple, and warranted a simple response, so we have no complaints there. It was simple enough, though, that it should’ve been covered in the knowledgebase, which is wasn’t. 

There’s also an email address you can find by going through the footer of the website, but that negates the ticket tracking system that e-VPN has in the client area.

The Verdict

e-VPN is a small provider that’s had growing pains. While we think the intention of providing an inexpensive VPN with excellent security is present, the execution of the concept something to be desired in server selection, speed and usability.

With updates, e-VPN would be a force to be reckoned with in the VPN space. As it stands, though, it’s just a provider trying to find its legs in a sea of superior options.

What do you think of e-VPN? Will you sign up and try it? Let us know in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.