AirVPN started offering free VPN service to activists and branched out into the commercial VPN space in 2010. They are known as strong privacy advocates that have the technical background to help users protect their online privacy. You won’t notice a flashy website or user interface. Instead the AirVPN team has focused on the technical side. They allow you to tweak the service to meet your needs more than just about any other VPN service.
AirVPN Plans and Discounts
The AirVPN team gives members a wide range of payment terms. You can sign up for a 3 day account to attend a conference and then extend your account for a month or even a year. Like most VPN providers, AirVPN offers discounts based on the sign up term. Their subscriptions are not recurring so you don’t have to worry about your account renewing without you taking action. The annual plan works out to just 4,50 € a month.
New members are covered by a 3 day / 5 GB money back guarantee. If you need to cancel for any reason you will want to contact their staff. I would recommend signing up for a 3 day account for 1 € to test the service. Then you can top off your account with more days after you have a chance to test it out. Their annual plan will save you 35% off the monthly price.
Sign Up Process and Payment Options
You will need to register an account on AirVPN.org before you can sign up. The process is simple and only takes a minute. All you need to provide is your email address. You will select a username and password. It’s pretty standard information. Once registered you can log into the site and add VPN service. AirVPN accepts a wide range of payment options including PayPal, credit card, bitcoin, and several more. The information necessary to sign up depends on how you choose to pay. I would recommend paying with a cryptocurrency like bitcoin for those who want a higher level of anonymity.
VPN Server Locations
AirVPN manages a network of 119 VPN servers in 16 countries. They have multiple server locations in popular countries including the United States and Canada. Their top location is in The Netherlands where AirVPN hosts 40 servers. Amsterdam is a popular server location for P2P / file sharing users. AirVPN hosts servers in Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.
Once you log into AirVPN you can view a wide range of network statistics. They provide you with a lot of detail to help choose the best server location. In the image above you can see the geographical distribution of their network with the number of users, servers, and best server by country and region.
AirVPN Performance Testing
- AirVPN US speed test – we tested servers in a few US cities and were able to achieve 61.84 Mbps download speed in Los Angeles.
- AirVPN UK speed test – performance was good in the United Kingdom as well with 31.98 Mbps download speed in London.
- AirVPN NL speed test – their network really shines in The Netherlands where our results showed a download speed of 60.93 Mbps.
- Conclusion – AirVPN performed well in our speed tests. They were on par with other leading VPN services in the United States and one of the fastest VPNs we’ve tested in The Netherlands.
VPN Client Software and Compatibility
AirVPN has developed custom client software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. They support open source apps for iOS and Android. AirVPN believes strongly in keeping users protected. In such they do not support PPTP or L2TP. You will connect using OpenVPN which is more secure. The AirVPN support team has provided the config files for your mobile devices. They have a generator that will let you choose specific countries, regions, or their full network.
As you can see the AirVPN Windows client has several tabs across the top. You can easily connect to any server location and compare the speed of different server locations.
I like their Countries screen as it shows you the number of servers in each country along with the load and number of users currently connected. This will help you select the best server location. They also have a page on the AirVPN site that gives you a good look into their network usage at any given time. It also shows the most popular server locations.
Technical Support
AirVPN is best suited for those with some technical skill to make full use of their service. With that said, the AirVPN support team is there to help with any questions. You can start with their FAQ and check out the forum for answers. From there you can also contact their support team through the site for assistance. There is no response time listed on the site.
AirVPN Review : Conclusion
I was happily surprised by the AirVPN service. On first glance their website didn’t leave me with the best impression. As I started to dive down into the site and test the VPN service my first impression was quickly changed. I have some technical background and really appreciate the length at which the AirVPN team goes to keep their users safe and secure. They start by giving you the ability to ensure your connection is always secure for specific applications. You can customize the service to meet your needs.
A lot of our reviews end with an emphasis on price and usability. The AirVPN service is fairly priced at 7 € a month or 54 € a year. That’s right in line with most the other VPNs we recommend. I wouldn’t say AirVPN is quite as user friendly as some VPN providers. It helps to have some technical background to make full use of the service. If you’re tech savvy then I highly recommend AirVPN. You’ll find that it gives you the ability to protect your privacy better than most VPN services without trading performance.
