CyberGhost VPN Review 2024 – Do We Recommend It?

Every time I review a new VPN service, the question is always the same: is it worth recommending to you guys? In the case of CyberGhost Review, I’ll spare you the suspense – the short answer is yes.

If there’s one thing CyberGhost is great at, it’s not making their product overly complicated that changes what we expect out of a VPN.

In all honesty, over the years, CyberGhost has figured out what needs to be fixed and methodically make adequate updates without breaking anything along the way. The result is a VPN that’s not entirely perfect — but it does most things like unblocking Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Torrenting, and others almost perfectly.

The most noticeable change you’ll see in the latest update of CyberGhost is universal support. In simpler terms, CyberGhost now looks and functions exactly the same across all your devices.

With the generation 7.0 update, CyberGhost now boasts a simpler design, one-click connections, and plenty of options for streaming, torrenting and robust privacy.

But who is CyberGhost best suited for? Does it have what it takes to be recommended on The VPN Experts? Are there any known problems you should be aware of? Read on to find out.

Key Findings from CyberGhost VPN Review

CyberGhost Speed Test Analysis

To be honest, speed is quite subjective. It all depends on how fast your internet connection is and which servers you connect to.

I conducted speed tests for a few other server locations in different parts of the world just to get an idea of what you can expect to get out of CyberGhost. Here’s a table for that if you’re interested:

CyberGhost makes it really easy to connect to the fastest available server. I like that by simply hitting the power button, the app automatically connects you to the fastest server based on ping speed, and distance from your location.

That being said, if you manually pick a server to connect to, you might notice a speed drop. To give you an idea of what speeds you can realistically expect from CyberGhost, I’ve covered an extensive speed test below for both automatic and long-distance connections.

1. Automatic connection speed test
2. Long-distance connection speed test

Automatic Connection

As I said, the automatic server selection feature is quite convenient. However, one thing I noticed was that if you rely on automatic connections, you’ll get connected to local servers. By that, I mean to the servers near or in your own country.

So, every time I clicked on the power button, I automatically got connected to the servers in the Netherlands. Because of that, I didn’t notice a major speed drop while streaming, downloading, or browsing.

Before connecting to CyberGhost, my default internet speed was 93.2 Mbps download, 89.9 Mbps upload, and 25 ms ping with T-Mobile.

When I got connected to the Los Angeles location, my download speed was 85 Mbps, my upload speed was 80 Mbps and my pings increased to 102 ms.

As you can see, after connecting to CyberGhost via the “Best Server Location” feature, I barely noticed any difference. I was still able to stream Netflix in HD quality and video chat in high definition as well.

I also didn’t notice any issues while playing Fornite Battle Royale. For my entire gaming session, I managed to get a consistent 30-40 ms pings with almost zero packet loss.

Long-Distance Connection

When I switched to manual server selection, the results got a bit inconsistent. However, I do have to admit that they’ve done a great job of making it easy to pick the best server.

If you click on ‘All servers’, you can see exactly how crowded a specific server location is along with distance in km and server load. If you further click on any server location, you can even view pings.

Now, back to the speed test. In order to test what CyberGhost was capable of delivering over a long distance, I first connected to a bunch of random U.K server locations.

This time, without connecting CyberGhost my speeds were 95.6 Mbps download, 80 Mbps upload, and 32 ms ping. After connecting to random U.K server locations, my speeds dropped to 60.23 Mbps download and 71.9 Mbps upload. My pings also increased to around 167 ms. Overall, just in download speeds, I noticed a drop of around 37%.

This might sound like a lot, however, in terms of usage, I barely noticed any difference. After all, 60.23 Mbps download speed is still more than enough for streaming Netflix in HD quality and downloading large files.

To step it up a notch, I connected to CyberGhost’s Singapore servers. That’s a distance of around 10468.58 km from my location. This is where I started to notice significant speed drops.

With the default internet speed of around 95.6 Mbps, I only managed to get around 27.25 Mbps downloading speed. That’s a speed drop of around 71.5%. My upload speed also suffered significantly. At max, I only got around 5.44 Mbps upload speed.

Overall, despite the major drop, I was still able to browse and stream just fine. However, file transfers took considerably longer.

CyberGhost is capable of delivering exceptional speeds if the distance between you and the server location you’re connecting to isn’t too much.

Over a long distance, you might notice sluggish performance. However, your speeds and performance might vary depending on your internet connection speed and your actual geographical location.

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CyberGhost Passed DNS Leak Tests

VPN leaks are quite more common than you might think. If a VPN leaks, it can expose all of your browsing data. Imagine how embarrassing that would be. It would be like walking out of a toilet with toilet paper stuck to your shoe.

You don’t want that happening — Trust me…

Luckily, CyberGhost is free of any sort of leaks. It actually comes with a built-in option for leak protection. And the cool thing is, the leak protection option is enabled by default so you don’t really have to worry about it.

Don’t want to read? Here’s a table with DNS leak tests from multiple locations.

Still, to test for leaks, I connected to multiple server locations of CyberGhost and ran several IP and DNS leak tests. For a comprehensive test, I connected to servers in the U.K, U.S, Germany, Australia, and Singapore.

After running multiple tests, I didn’t come across any leaks on any of its servers. Just check out this screenshot:

As you can see, both of my IP and DNS addresses are from the U.S. As for the leak test results for other locations, I’m not going to bore you with too many screenshots. Instead, here’s a neat little table.

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CyberGhost Can Unblock Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Amazon Prime

CyberGhost is by far the best VPN service for content streaming I’ve used in a really long time. I tested it extensively and it definitely deserves 5/5 points for its exceptional unblocking performance.

Here’s a screenshot of my IP address without CyberGhost enabled:

They’ve made it super easy to find servers optimized for different streaming services. Simply clicking on the streaming tab will present you with an extensive list of servers that can unblock different streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and more.

First up, I tried unblocking Netflix’s U.S library since they are the most popular.  I was very happy to see that no Netflix proxy error showed up. I tried playing Ex-Machina and everything played in HD quality. What was even better was the fact that I barely noticed any speed drops. After further testing, I found out CyberGhost is able to unblock Netflix France, Netflix Germany, and Netflix UK.

Next, I tried unblocking the BBC iPlayer. And what do you know, it worked on the first try. I tried playing Luther while connected to the London server and I encountered no issues at all. So far, two for two.

Moving on from BBC iPlayer, I tried streaming a couple of shows on Hulu. However, when I manually selected a bunch of U.S servers, Hulu somehow detected that I was using a VPN. But when I switched to the optimized Hulu server, I was quickly able to stream Rick and Morty without any issues. Overall, that really impressed me a lot.

I also easily managed to unblock Amazon Prime too. I tried connecting to U.S and U.K servers and both of them worked. Though, one thing I did notice was the fact that the U.K servers did lag a bit. But after a few seconds of buffering, everything played just fine. By the way, I tried playing Rocketman.

Last but not least, I also tried streaming movies on Kodi with CyberGhost. I tried both installing it through OpenVPN Manager add-on and running it in the background.

Launching CyberGhost and letting it run in the background working as you would expect. The add-on installation process took me literally 5 minutes max. Overall, CyberGhost is a good option for Kodi and for a bunch of popular streaming services.

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CyberGhost is Ideal for Torrenting

Yes, CyberGhost can be considered an ideal choice for torrenting. I say this because CyberGhost not only comes with advanced encryption but also a strict no-logs policy which makes it perfect for secure and anonymous P2P sharing.

But do keep in mind that the torrenting feature is only available on the desktop version of CyberGhost.

Anyways, similar to the option for only selecting streaming optimized servers, CyberGhost also has an option to select P2P servers. That’s something I really like.

Simply click on the torrenting servers tab and you’ll be able to connect to the perfect servers for P2P file sharing.

To test out CyberGhost’s torrenting performance, I connected to the Bucharest Romania server location which had the least number of users on it. I also switched to a different 10 Mbps internet connection to see how torrenting would work for most people.

With CyberGhost connected, I managed to achieve a downloading speed of around 1.1 MiB/s and an uploading speed of 63.3 KiB/s with 30 seeds.

Not bad at all.

As for other locations like Germany, Switzerland, and Denmark, I did notice slightly sluggish performance. This could be because CyberGhost lacks support for SOCKS5 proxy. If it had this feature, I think CyberGhost would have done a better job uploading and downloading torrents across all of its P2P-optimized servers.

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CyberGhost is Easy to Use

As I mentioned earlier, CyberGhost 7.0 is all about simplicity. I found all of its apps to be easy to use and full of features. If we talk about the Windows app, the initial setup file is only 54.7 KB.

Once you run the installer, additional files will start downloading. It took around 5 minutes to get installed on my computer. For iOS devices, the file size is around 112.4 MB and for Android devices, the file size will vary depending on your device.

Some of the options like quick connect makes everything so streamlined and quick. Just one tap and Bam! — you’re instantly connected.

Even though CyberGhost comes with more options than you could ever need, finding each one and figuring out what it does is super easy thanks to the well thought off UI.

Turning any feature on or off is as simple as flicking a toggle switch. Want to connect to the best server? Click on the power button on the home screen and that’s it. Finding servers for torrenting and streaming is super easy too, thanks to separate tabs conveniently built-in to the interface.

Speaking of servers, I love how the apps show the number of users in real-time, server load, and distance from your actual location. There’s even a favorites button for people like me who have a tough time remembering which servers to connect to.

Even messing around with advanced options is not hard at all. It literally took me no time to set smart rules and enable options like ad-blocker and WiFi protection. From a simplicity standpoint, CyberGhost scores 5/5 points.

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CyberGhost has a No-Logs Policy

CyberGhost has a strict no-logs policy. Aside from just storing basic account information like email addresses and payment information, CyberGhost stores nothing. If fact, if you go through their logging, you’ll notice that they clearly state not keeping logs of the following:

• No traffic data such as browsing history, traffic destination, data content, and search preferences are monitored, recorded, logged, or stored.
• No connection logs such as IP address, connection timestamp, or session duration are stored.
• No credit card information is stored.
• None of your payment information is linked to the activities you perform inside the CyberGhost VPN tunnel.

While we’re at the topic of logs, one thing I really like about CyberGhost is the fact that they release transparency reports every 3-months. It contains information about DMCA complaints, Malicious activity flags, and Police requests that CyberGhost has received in every quarter.

The transparency report for Q1 2020 has already been released. You can check it out yourself if you’re curious.

Review of CyberGhost 45 Days Money-Back Guarantee

Refunds are always quite frustrating. In fact, I’ve covered an entire research article exposing the reality behind the refund policy of popular VPN providers. Fortunately, CyberGhost wasn’t clingy at all when it came to refunding me my money.

After a quick chit chat inquiring about the reason why I wanted to end my subscription, the live chat support representative simply asked me to provide my reference number and the email address associated with my account.

After providing the required information, I received an email confirmation of my refund request. I was told that I’ll get my money refunded within 5-10 working days. And sure enough, after a few days, I got my full refund.

Key Features of CyberGhost VPN

1. Split Tunneling
2. Kill Switch
3. Leak Protection
4. WiFi Protection
5. Automated HTTPs Redirect
6. No-Spy Servers
7. Ad Blocker
8. Data compression
9. Dedicated IP

As I mentioned CyberGhost comes with a lot of features. For starters, CyberGhost offers strong encryption, industry-standard security protocols, and extra value-added security features.

Speaking of encryption, CyberGhost supports AES 256-bit encryption which is the best of the best. CyberGhost uses a combination of 4096-bit RSA key and SHA256 authentication to ensure no hacker can compromise your privacy.

It’s all quite complicated, but trust me — CyberGhost is secure. Just to give you an idea of how secure AES 256-bit encryption is, it can take billions of years for anyone to break it using the current computing technology,

Aside from powerful encryption, CyberGhost also boasts a variety of VPN protocols. You can choose between OpenVPN TCP/UDP, IKEv2, and L2TP/IPSec.

The app can automatically choose the right protocol for you based on your activities, however, you can always go into the settings and choose a protocol manually if that’s something you prefer.

One thing you should keep in mind is that the mobile apps of CyberGhost only support OpenVPN. But that’s not a big deal considering that OpenVPN is actually the safest protocol out there.

CyberGhost also offers another protocol by the name WireGuard but it’s only available for Linux. What’s cool about it is that it is fast enough as IKEv2 but equivalently secure as OpenVPN.

But that is not all.

After doing a bit of digging around, I found out that CyberGhost also offers perfect forward secrecy. If you don’t know, this feature can basically change your encryption key every time you log on to the CyberGhost app. This makes CyberGhost even more anonymous.

Split Tunneling

If you’ve used premium VPNs before then you know what split tunneling is. Basically, it is a feature that allows you to customize which apps get protected by the VPN and which don’t.

For instance, when streaming Netflix, you might want your traffic to pass through the secure VPN server. But for accessing local websites from your home country, you might want to exclude them from the VPN tunnel.

CyberGhost offers split tunneling on both mobile and desktop versions of its apps. On the desktop app, you can head over to the “Smart Rules” section and then click on “Exceptions”. From there, you can add whichever site you don’t want to pass through the VPN tunnel.

This feature works flawlessly.

What I love about the “split tunneling” feature of CyberGhost is that it also has an option for “App Protection”. This option will allow you to add apps and specify the server location you want them to connect to.

For instance, for watching Netflix, you’d always want the Netflix app to connect to U.S servers. Similarly, for BBC iPlayer, you’d always want the BBC iPlayer app to connect to U.K servers.

Overall, it’s a very customizable feature and exactly how I like it. For example, I’ve added Firefox to the list of protected apps.

Kill Switch

CyberGhost comes with a built-in Kill switch. Like a lot of features, the Kill switch feature is already enabled when you first launch the CyberGhost app. You don’t really have to worry about enabling this feature.

That said, one thing that I uncovered while reviewing CyberGhost was that the Kill switch feature can’t be turned off. I asked their live chat support representative and she told me that the Kill switch feature is enabled by default and cannot be accessed or disabled from the settings.

That’s not necessarily bad, however, a toggle switch could have been better. The Kill switch feature is also available on iOS and Android and is enabled by default.

The way CyberGhost’s Kill switch feature works is that when your connection drops, CyberGhost blocks all traffic and attempts to reconnect to the VPN servers for 120 seconds.

Leak Protection

CyberGhost comes with built-in leak protection. We’ve already tested how effective this feature is in the leak test section. Feel free to scroll back and check it out.

As for the leak protection options, I like that CyberGhost offers separate options for DNS and IP leak protection.

If you scroll through the connection settings, you’ll see both DNS and IPv6 leak protection enabled by default. Now, of course, you can turn off these options, however, I would advise leaving them both on.

One thing I didn’t cover in the leak test section is how effective the option for disabling IPv6 connection really is. When I left it turned on and ran the leak test, I noticed that my IPv6 was unreachable.

What even more impressed me was the fact that my WebRTC was also not leaking at all. Overall, super impressed by CyberGhost’s leak protection options.

WiFi Protection

CyberGhost’s WiFi protection is truly unique. I can’t tell how useful I found this feature to be during my testing. You can find this feature in the “Smart Rules” section.

This is a customizable feature that’ll allow you to adjust how the app will behave when it detects or connects to open or encrypted Wi-Fi networks. You’ll be able to configure the following options:

• Never Protect – CyberGhost will leave the connection unprotected.
• Ask me what to do – A pop message will display requiring your input every time you connect to a new Wi-Fi connection.
• Always connect – CyberGhost will automatically start protecting the WiFi connection.
• Disconnect from VPN – CyberGhost will disconnect from an existing VPN connection

Aside from the security standpoint, this feature is convenient too. What I love about this feature is that it’ll remember your preference so you wouldn’t need to specify the settings for known networks every time you connect.

This feature is not only available for desktop apps but also for the iOS and Android apps of CyberGhost. Overall, it’s a very handy and well thought off feature.

Automated HTTPs Redirect

If you know a bit about networking then you probably know that HTTPs-enabled sites are secure. But what if some website has both an HTTPs version and a non-HTTPs version?

Well, this is where CyberGhost’s automated HTTPs redirect feature can come handy. When enabled, the force HTTPs feature will allow your browser to only visit the HHTPs version of the site you want to visit (if available).

This feature can be super helpful if you actively shop online or use internet banking and can’t risk your credit card details being stolen.

No-Spy Servers

Still with me? We still have more features to cover here.

Another feature that I think no other VPN offers is dedicated servers within their own HQ. These servers are different from the regular servers that CyberGhost offers.

Since these servers are actually housed in Romania, they are out of the reach of the 5 Eyes (and even 14 Eyes).

Another cool thing about these servers is that they are maintained by CyberGhost’s own in-house team rather than being rented from a third-party data center.

CyberGhost claims that their No-Spy servers offer faster speeds, bigger bandwidth, super high premium hardware, and more. While I can’t tell if all of their claims are true, I can vouch for slightly faster speeds. That’s something I did notice while reviewing CyberGhost.

One thing I believe that you’ll really like is the fact the No-Spy server feature isn’t an extra add-on. It is included in all of CyberGhost’s subscription plans with the exception of the 1-month plan.

Ad Blocker

CyberGhost comes with a pretty beefy-looking Ad-blocker. If you head over to the “Connection features”, you’ll be able to block Ads, malicious websites, and online tracking.

When I tested it out, the Ad-blocker feature worked flawlessly. I can’t say for sure if it blocked malware but it certainly blocked a lot of ads from popping up. As a result, I did notice web pages opening up comparatively faster.

Data Compression

The Data compression feature of CyberGhost is pretty self-explanatory. This feature basically compresses images and other elements on web pages to reduce your internet usage.

I’ve tested out this feature via Windows 10’s Data usage option and it actually works quite well. I took a before and after reading and saw a significant difference in data usage.

This can be quite helpful for folks who are always on mobile data. Overall, it’s another handy little feature.

Dedicated IP

Out of all the features we’ve seen so far, the dedicated IP is the only feature of CyberGhost that can be purchased as an add-on. The dedicated IP add-on costs $5.00 a month over your regular subscription plan.

As for locations, you can pick a CyberGhost dedicated IP from any of the following five countries:

1. United States – New York
2. The United Kingdom – London
3. France – Paris
4. Germany – Frankfurt
5. Canada – Montreal

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Analysis of Servers

Out of all the VPNs that I’ve reviewed, CyberGhost by far has the largest server network. But one thing you might find annoying is the fact that their server numbers tend to fluctuate quite often.

Currently, CyberGhost is offering 7700+ servers in 90+ countries. However, I’ve even seen them rise to 7000+ and drop to 5500+ in the past. I’m sure you get what I’m saying. Another thing I wish CyberGhost offered is obfuscated servers like NordVPN.

Anyways, their server locations are pretty diverse. You can find servers all over Europe, the Americas, Middle East, Australia, and even in Asia. But what’s even more impressive is the fact that CyberGhost even offers 48 servers in Shenzhen, China.

Although not physical but still the virtual servers managed to unblock some Chinese content. I tried unblocking iQiyi and Youku and both of them worked. However, the connection was not stable at all. But still, I wasn’t too disappointed.

Speaking of virtual servers, CyberGhost uses a mix of both virtual and physical servers. That’s not uncommon nowadays. What I like about CyberGhost is that they’re not hiding this information. In fact, if you head over to their server page, you can clearly see which servers are physical and which are not.

Special Servers

Special servers are, well — special. This is something I really like. I hate playing Russian roulette with servers. It is so convenient to just pick servers that are optimized for certain tasks.

Luckily, CyberGhost comes with a massive list of special servers. As I mentioned earlier, there are tabs for optimized torrenting and streaming servers.

For instance, if you click on the “For streaming” tab, you’ll find optimized servers for Netflix U.S, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and more. I’ve talked about these servers in the torrenting and streaming section of this review. Scroll back for a quick refresher.

All in all, I can’t complain much about their servers honestly.

CyberGhost Apps Compatibility

CyberGhost is compatible with a ton of mainstream operating systems and devices. What you’re not going to see is a massive list of devices no one really cares about.

Here are all the devices that CyberGhost supports:

Windows	iOS
macOS	Android
Linux	Amazon Fire TV
VPN Chrome	Android TV
VPN Firefox	Apple TV
Routers	Smart TVs

CyberGhost for macOS & Windows

The Windows and macOS apps of CyberGhost are quite similar looking and feature-rich. The macOS app of CyberGhost is compatible with macOS Mojave (10.14), macOS High Sierra (10.13), and macOS Sierra (10.12).

When I installed the CyberGhost client on my Macbook pro, the app ran fluidly. I came across no glitches or crashes at all. Even the UI of the app looks polished and up to date.

As for the Windows operating system, CyberGhost is compatible with Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10.

Again, the UI looks great and the apps are so lightweight that they can run on just 2 Gigabyte RAM and 310 Megabyte free hard drive space.

CyberGhost for Android & iOS

The mobile apps of CyberGhost are also very well designed. However, the iOS app lacks quite a bit in features as compared to the Android app. For instance, while the Android app of CyberGhost looks exactly like the full-fledged desktop app, the iOS app only has an option to toggle on or off WiFi protection.

That’s kind of disappointing considering that I expected both the iOS and Android apps to boast similar options.

But coming back to the Android app, you’ll be more than happy with the number of options you’ll get. Just to name a few, you can toggle on and off options like Data compression, Ad-blocker, Malware blocker, Split tunneling, and much more.

Overall, the mobile apps of CyberGhost are great, however, the iOS app still needs a few improvements.

Cyberghost Browser Extensions

CyberGhost also supports browsers as well. That’s nothing new, however, CyberGhost’s browser extensions are free. You can download it for your Chrome or Firefox browser.

But do keep in mind that the free browser extensions lack in features. For instance, as opposed to 7700+ servers, the browser extension only offers four server locations (Romania, Germany, Netherlands, United States).

As for usability, don’t expect to unblock Netflix with it. Trust me, I tried. You’re also not going to be able to access all the full-fledged features that are found in the desktop or the mobile apps of CyberGhost.

But overall, it works great. I was able to unblock plenty of geo-blocked websites without any issues. That’s more than enough for something that is totally free.

CyberGhost Router App

From a compatibility standpoint, the best thing about CyberGhost is its router compatibility. I say this because it makes CyberGhost so much more versatile.

For my testing, I configured CyberGhost on my DD-WRT router and successfully connected my Play Station with it. The setup tutorial was super helpful, however, not cut out for everyone.

Having router support is so much more convenient than just dedicated apps. You don’t have to download any apps and you can simultaneously protect multiple devices at once.

If you don’t like manual configurations, you can always buy a pre-configured router from Flashrouters. But if you’re a do-it-yourself kind of person, you can check out CyberGhost’s router setup manuals here.

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CyberGhost in China is a 50/50 Shot

Well, yes and no. As I mentioned earlier, I did manage to unblock iQiyi and Youku with the Chinese servers of CyberGhost. However, the connection was quite unstable.

This is one of the major cons of CyberGhost. If you want to access some Chinese websites from outside China, CyberGhost might work just fine.

However, I can’t recommend it to access foreign content from inside China. CyberGhost still struggles with the Great Firewall of China. That’s something my international colleague has confirmed while on his trip to Beijing.

Best Alternative to CyberGhost

Even though CyberGhost is a rock-solid option with plenty of features, there are other competitive alternatives out there. For instance, you can try Surfshark or NordVPN.

Both are great options. NordVPN offers thousands of servers as well and Surfshark is significantly cheaper than CyberGhost. Similar to CyberGhost, NordVPN and Surfshark also come with premium features like Split tunneling, Ad-blocker, powerful encryption, and much more.

If you want to continue reading more reviews before purchasing a VPN service check out our comparison of CyberGhost vs NordVPN vs PureVPN and CyberGhost vs ExpressVPN vs Surfshark.

CyberGhost Review: Do I Recommend this VPN App?

Yes, I recommend CyberGhost VPN as it has improved over the years with strong encryption, improved features, a higher number of servers, and a strict no-log policy.

In my CyberGhost Review, I found out, it even allows seven simultaneous connections, which makes it a great choice for families and friends to use the Romanian-based VPN service. And finally, it does what most VPN services struggle with; unblocks Netflix libraries, Amazon Prime, and BBC iPlayer.

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